Just about every month I get several questions concerning the difference between aviation and automotive engine oils. This month I received a question about using Aeroshell 2F in a vintage automobile and the ever popular question about why one should not use automotive or heavy duty engine oil in their aircraft engine. The answers always […]
Visser's Voice
Tackling fuel myths
From my Feb. 23 column “Fuels: What to expect in 2017,” I received a number of responses, both positive and negative. I appreciate readers taking time to write back, even if they disagree with what I wrote. The two areas I would like to address are the belief that all 100 lean rating fuels are […]
Preservative oil
I recently received an email from Mark Peterson concerning the use of preservative oils. I have addressed this before, but preventing rust in low usage aircraft is still the number one lubricant area of concern for GA pilots. A number of years ago, Phillips started to recommend that pilots add a quart or two of […]
Fuels: What to expect in 2017
We are now well into 2017, so I thought I would review all of the significant advancements in the world of general aviation future fuels, especially the development of an unleaded 100 octane avgas. But there were none. We have had a lot of talk about the candidate fuels, testing, new specification, etc. We have […]
The difficulty in determining rich and lean ratings
I recently received a question on octane ratings similar to the questions I typically receive. The reader wanted to know what the rich and lean rating would be for 100, 110, 112, 114 and 118 octane racing gasolines. And what would be the R+M/2 of 80/87, 100/130, 100LL, and 115/145 avgas? The problem here is that […]
2016: Just an OK year for GA
Well, we made it through another year. It was not a great year for general aviation, but not a real bad one either — it was just OK. On the down side, we continue to lose many of our great aviators and heroes. For example, the loss of Bob Hoover was sad for the whole country, but […]
More questions about ethanol
In my last column, Ethanol and aircraft: Just say no, I answered some questions about ethanol and its effect on aircraft. In this column, I would like to address some follow-up questions about ethanol. Specifically, if ethanol causes so many problems with engines, why is it added to fuel and why is fuel with ethanol cheaper than […]
Ethanol and aircraft: Just say no
Almost every month I receive a question or two about auto gas with ethanol. The questions usually center on whether it can be used in aircraft and if not, why not. The answer I give is almost always: “ No because of technical and/or legal reasons.” Technical Reasons There is a fairly long list of technical […]
Grease: Not the movie, the slippery stuff
When I was a boy growing up on a farm, we had one pail of grease and it was used to lubricate everything on the farm. But aviation is different: There is a wide variety of greases and they have different properties for each application. The unique part of greases is that they are not […]